Pathologist calling for full medical history

THE exact cause of death of the ten-month-old son of national footballer Marvin Phillip could not be determined yesterday.

A determination is expected to be made when the child’s complete medical history is presented to the forensic pathologist on Monday.

According to relatives, around 6.15 a.m. yesterday, Matai Joshua Cameron Phillip was dropped off at the Anointed Angels Day-care Centre at Cicada Street, Edinburgh 500, Chaguanas.

The child had been taken to the centre from his home at Spring Lands, Gasparillo, by his grandfather, Lincoln Halls.

Relatives said just before 7 a.m. they got a telephone call from the day-care advising them to go immediately to the Chaguanas medical facility. When they got there they were told the child had died.

Halls, who spoke to reporters at the Forensic Science Centre yesterday, said he was told by one of the day-care employees the child had been crying incessantly in a crib, following which he was taken out and placed in a child car seat. About half an hour later the boy was found motionless in the seat, he said.

Halls said around 7 a.m. he got a call from the boy’s mother, Leslie-Ann Halls, who said she had been told by the day-care that something was wrong with her son.

Halls told reporters: “When I left him at the day-care centre he was jolly and playing and when I went to the health centre minutes to 8 (o’clock) the child was lifeless.”

Leslie-Ann Halls is a special reserve police officer at the Gasparillo Police Station.

Lincoln Halls speculated that when the boy was placed in the car seat he may have choked on a strap in the seat. He added, “But the crib is the safer place because you wouldn’t take them from a crib to a car seat. ... In my view that sounding so strange.”

The forensic pathologist at the Forensic Science Centre in St James has decided that he wanted a copy of the child’s complete medical history before fully examining the body.

The Express was told by the police officer investigating the case that the baby may have had respiratory issues prior to his sudden death and that all angles needed to be covered as the investigations continue.